time set to last up to 25 minutes

FIFA would have been "wasting the moment" if it had not extended the World Cup final interval on Sunday to put on a half-time show, a top global events boss has said.

FIFA has said the show, featuring artists such as Madonna, Shakira and Justin Bieber, will last 11 minutes at the MetLife Stadium on Sunday, but it has been reported the show will mean the gap between the first and second half being well in excess of the 15 minutes set down in the sport's laws.

Many fans and observers have criticised the move, but Michael Gietzen, the chief executive officer of Identity, said: "FIFA is right to extend half-time and the people complaining are missing the point.

"Football has its own rhythm and its own rules and of course that matters. But a World Cup final isn’t 'most of the time’.

"It happens once every four years, in front of the biggest audience any single sporting event can pull. Treating it like a normal weekend fixture is the mistake, not the half-time show.

"A good half-time show isn’t a distraction from the football. It’s part of the reason people remember exactly where they were when they watched it.

"A few extra minutes to get that right isn’t a compromise, it’s FIFA recognising that the final is a cultural event as much as a sporting one.

"Purists may call that a dilution. I’d call it FIFA catching up to what a decent proportion of audiences have wanted for years. A final like this comes round once every four years. Play it safe and you waste the moment."

With exact timings and other production details as yet unknown, RTÉ has yet to make a decision on whether or not the show will be broadcast as part of final coverage on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

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